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Sylvia Woods Harp Center
March 2020 Newsletter
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A Personal Note from Sylvia
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Happy Saint Patrick's Day on March 17!
Did you know that there's another Celtic holiday this month? Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, was born somewhere between 462 and 512 AD, and tradition says that he died on March 1, 589 AD. In Wales, it is traditional to wear either a daffodil or a leek on March 1st, Saint David's Day. Leeks are associated with Saint David, and daffodils are a symbol of Wales.
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The best-known heraldic symbol of Wales is the red Welsh Dragon or
Y Ddraig Goch. And so, in honor of Wales and Saint David's Day, this month is all about dragons!
Happy (belated) Saint David's Day
and Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
Sylvia
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The triple harp (or triple-strung harp) became popular in Wales in the 18th century and is often called the Welsh Triple Harp, or
telyn deires. For those of you not familiar with this instrument, a triple harp has three parallel rows of strings. The two outer rows are tuned diatonically, like the strings on most other harps. The middle row is tuned to the accidentals (sharps and flats), and you reach between the strings of the outer row to get to them. The triple harp is very popular in Welsh folk and traditional music.
Back in the late 1970s, I met two amazing triple harpists, brothers Dafydd and Gwyndaf Roberts of the traditional Welsh band
Ar Log. I was touring as a member of
Robin Williamson and His Merry Band, and we performed at several European folk festivals where they were also on the roster. Of course, since we had a "harp connection," we became great friends.
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Dafydd and Gwyndaf studied with "The Queen of the Harp" Nansi Richards Jones (1888 - 1979). Nancy learned the harp from Welsh Romany gypsies, and also studied with harpist John Thomas at the Guildhall School of Music in London. She played both triple harp and pedal harp and was appointed Royal Harpist to the Prince of Wales in 1911. She held this title until her death. I loved hearing the Roberts brothers' stories of this amazing woman.
Several years after meeting Dafydd and Gwndaf, I bought a Welsh triple harp and taught myself to play. I'll tell you more stories about my triple harp experiences in a future issue of this newsletter.
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P.S. Here's one of my funny memories of traveling in Wales. After a trip to Ireland in the early 1980s, I went to see Dafydd and Gwyndaf perform at the National Eisteddfod. Unfortunately, I took the wrong ferry from Ireland and landed a long way from my destination. After renting a car and driving for hours, I finally arrived at the Eisteddfod after midnight. I decided to sleep in my car in the parking lot, but my main priority was to find the restrooms. I found them but was baffled by which one to choose. One said DYNION, and the other said MERCHED, but there were no stick figures on the door to tell me which was which. Since there was no one else around, I figured it didn't matter, so I just picked one. The next morning, I followed other women into the one marked MERCHED.
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Hanalei Bay, here on the north shore of Kauai, is my favorite spot in the world. In 1990 we purchased a house just a few blocks away from this beautiful bay and named it
The Harper's House. We advertised it as a vacation rental in my mail order catalog for about ten years because it included a harp to play on! My current condo is about a 10-minute drive away from this gorgeous bay.
Hanalei Bay has been featured in many movies, including S
outh Pacific (1958) and George Clooney's
The Descendants (2011).
Many people also say that Hanalei Bay is the home of
Puff the Magic Dragon, and that the
land called Honalee in the famous 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary song was really about Hanalei. However, according to a 2004 article in our local
Garden Island newspaper, Peter Yarrow said the song was not written about Hanalei, and that the similar name was just a “serendipitous coincidence.” Also, contrary to popular belief, the song is not about drug use. It is about the "innocence of childhood lost."
The lyrics of
Puff the Magic Dragon began in 1959 as a poem by Peter Yarrow's Cornell classmate Leonard Lipton, who was inspired by the 1936 Ogden Nash poem titled
The Tale of Custard the Dragon. Peter later added the melody and gave Lipton credit for the lyrics, along with half of the song's royalties.
The song lyrics say:
"Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee." Notice that Honalee rhymes with "sea," but Hanalei would rhyme with "bay."
So, it seems to me that if they had meant Puff to live in Hanalei, they would have written:
"Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the
bay
and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called
Hanalei
."
All that being said . . . Puff really DOES live in Hanalei. If you know where to look, you can see him sleeping by the bay. He's a bit hard to see in the photos, because his body blends in with the green mountains behind him, so I'm giving you some help. The brown triangle amidst the green foliage is his eye. His back goes on, and on, and on, as far as your imagination will take you around the bay.
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*P.S. By the way, my father was a huge fan of Ogden Nash, and
The Tale of Custard the Dragon
was one of my favorite poems when I was a child. I even memorized it for a poetry assignment in grammar school.
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This month's sale features books, PDFs and cross-stitch patterns about Wales and dragons. The code word is
Dragon
.
To get the 15% discount on the products below, enter the code word
Dragon
in the Promo Code box on your shopping cart page and click "Enter Code" by St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2020. For more information, see the "How to get the 15% discount" section at the bottom of this newsletter.
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including
Puff the Magic Dragon
by Sylvia Woods
15% off with
Dragon
code
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including
The Reluctant Dragon
by Sylvia Woods
15% off with
Dragon
code
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including
Dragon's Magic
by Gelsey Hughes
15% off with
Dragon
code
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by Reba Lunsford
15% off with
Dragon
code
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designed by Amy Clough
15% off with
Dragon
code
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designed by Amy Clough
15% off with
Dragon
code
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composed by John Thomas
arranged by Barbara Brundage
15% off with
Dragon
code
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by Darhon Rees-Rohrbacher
15% off with
Dragon
code
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including 6 Welsh songs
by Sylvia Woods
15% off with
Dragon
code
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How to get the
15%
discount
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15% off select sale items when you use the code word
Dragon
Our newsletter promo codes are redeemable online and are only valid for the items featured in the sale section of this newsletter. They are not valid for phone or email orders. This month's code word is
Dragon
, and it is valid for 15% off the select books and PDFs in the
sale section
above. Just because an item is mentioned somewhere in this newsletter doesn't mean that it is on sale. It must be in the sale section.
#1. Put the items you want to purchase in your cart.
#2. On the page where you view the items in your cart, type this month's code word
Dragon
in the "Promo Code" box and click on "Enter Code."
The actual price of the featured sale products on this page will then automatically change to reflect the discount. You'll also see a note below the Promo Code box saying the name of the promo code you entered and the percentage amount of the discount.
REMEMBER: you must enter this month's code word
Dragon
in the Promo Code box and click "Enter Code" on your shopping cart page by March 17, 2020 to get the discount!
Offer expires at the end of the day on 3/17/2020.
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Sylvia Woods Harp Center
Princeville, Hawaii
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